1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is an improved system and method for facilitating commercial transactions, at least in part through the use of electronic data processing and communications systems including a mobile wireless device which is associated with a consumer. The mobile wireless device stores consumer preferences and desired transaction(s) and communicates only with merchants in a limited local area to receive localized messages from merchants proposing transaction(s) which may be related to the stored desired transaction(s) and consumer preferences.
2. Background Art
Typical retail commerce in the United States is initiated by a consumer, dealing in person or over a network with a merchant who has relatively fixed prices for merchandise. With a few exceptions, the merchant has established his prices for his goods and services and operates from a fixed location where consumers can visit, inspect the goods and purchase them if the terms are acceptable.
Alternatives to in-person, sales occur through the use of Internet purchases and through catalogs and television networks like the Home Shopping Network, where a merchant is located at a distant (and frequently unknown) location and the consumer sees and purchases his good though remote communications. The remote communications can be through a credit card purchase over the Internet or through a telephone access. Inherently in such catalog, Internet and network shopping, the idea is to overcome the distance between the merchant and the consumer, because, with Internet communications and with Wide Area Telephone service (WATS line for so-called 800- or toll-free calls), the distance between the merchant and the consumer has been ignored, at least to some extent.
In a typical retail environment, it is difficult for a merchant to know what consumer is located within his immediately geography, let alone what that consumer is thinking of buying and what's important to the consumer. From the consumer's perspective, he is usually not aware of all of the merchants in his immediate geography who are offering a particular item (and/or any acceptable substitute) and at what price the merchant is offering the item. Also, the consumer will not know whether the merchant is willing to bargain on the price or other terms of the transaction in order to secure the business, unless the consumer sees advertising from the merchant or sees the merchant face-to-face and discusses the possible transaction. Such a system of personal visit to the merchant and discussion of price and other terms is slow and assumes that the consumer will have good information of the marketplace (what other merchants are offering and at what price and terms) prior to beginning his discussions with a merchant.
Auctions are known, both in a conventional sense (where an auctioneer in person auctions off a variety of goods to those participating in the auction in person, through closed circuit television and telephone) and over the Internet. Various auction systems have been established over the Internet, including those like e-Bay.com and PriceLine.com, providing remote purchasers with the opportunity to deal with remote sellers on terms proposed by one of the parties and accepted by the other party, with the negotiations occurring from afar and frequently from unknown locations. In the case of PriceLine.com, the buyer specifies the price that he is willing to pay for a generalized good or service (an airline flight within a window of time between fixed locations or a hotel room for fixed period within a geographic area), then the buyer's offer is shopped to various potential vendors for one who would accept the transaction at the price proposed. In the case of e.Bay.com, goods which are described by the seller are offered at auction to those who may participate in an auction for the goods.
In the case of e-Bay.com and PriceLine.com, as well as catalog shopping and televised shopping networks, the merchants and the buyers can be located almost anywhere—truly a worldwide commerce opportunity, if shipping distances and import/export considerations across borders can be ignored. A worldwide market may be appropriate for selling goods, either in high volume or at an auction, where large numbers of distant shopper add to the market opportunity, but when the merchant has a store and does business in person, his likely customers are located nearby and his advertising of limited time specials would be best suite to those potential customers who are nearby—and communicating offers to others might be considered inefficient.
In some geographic areas (particularly outside the United States) the merchant sell goods to buyers through bazaar-like markets, where the prices are not fixed but the buyers must actually meet the seller before knowing what the seller is offering and at what price. Frequently in such bazaar-like settings, the prices are adjusted periodically by the merchant in an attempt to sell the most at the greatest gross revenue per unit, particularly if the goods have a limited usefulness.
It is difficult for a merchant operating from a fixed location like a conventional storefront to establish communications with his potential customers located in his local area about how his offerings match the consumer's desires, even when the consumer and the merchant are in close spatial proximity, as they might be when a consumer is in the same shopping mall. The consumer may have either a specific item in mind (e.g., a Sony-brand 27″ color television model KV27FV15) or may be seeking something generally (such as a color television with a diagonal viewing area of about 25 inches). Sometimes, the consumer will be shopping for the lowest possible price for his purchase, sometimes for a particular brand, and still other times, for a particular feature or set of features (cable-ready, remote control, etc.) in mind. For some purchases, the consumer may be seeking a particular warranty or service term (local service, on-site repair, three year replacement warranty, etc.), and at still other times the consumer may be influenced by such a mixture of these terms that the consumer himself has not sorted through and is subject to influence by an appropriate offer from a merchant. In still other situations, the consumer is not aware of his being a potential purchaser of a commodity (such as food for lunch or an impulse item) until an advertisement for the food appears to him and then he realizes that food would taste good, since his shopping activity has made him hungry.
In any event, it is not easy in the prior art for a merchant to know what a consumer intends to purchase or what competing offers might be made by other merchants offering the same or similar products. While some merchants sell merchandise only at a fixed price, other merchants eagerly seek additional sales and are willing to negotiate the price in return for an additional, immediate sale. Some merchants will reduce prices or make other special offers when business is slow (such as an automotive service business when there are empty bays and idle mechanics available to service cars), but do not wish to make such offers generally known.
Various systems allow for purchases to be made remotely, such as catalog sales, home shopping networks and 800-number sales. Additionally, more and more sales are being conducted over the Internet. These systems usually provide for the goods or service to be purchased sight unseen (or based on a limited viewing a picture of the article on a screen or in a catalog) and shipped to the consumer, frequently incurring significant shipping and handling charges for goods which may or may not appear as attractive in reality as they appear on paper or on the screen.
Some systems provide for Internet-based sales and even auctions, but these are frequently with sellers whose reputations is unknown and who may be located a distance from the purchaser (or even at an unknown place), making the transaction at risk and possibly subject to delays in acquiring the goods. Sometimes, goods purchased through an Internet auction have not arrived and, at other times, the condition of the goods when they arrived was disappointing. In any event, goods ordered remotely will not arrive for some period of time, depending on how quickly the order is processed, packed and shipped and the method of shipment.
Accordingly, the prior art systems of merchandising have undesirable disadvantages and limitations.